‘Ahan Thai’: There’s more to Thai food than satay and traffic signal curries

Get over your fixation for red, yellow and green curries or those skewered satays as Thai cuisine has much more to offer. The Thai table comes loaded with an array of delicacies that are waiting to be tasted. And each bite will leave you yearning for more, as it opens up a world of sweet, sour and spicy flavours.

Ahan Thai, which translates to ‘Thai Cusine’, is a food festival celebrating the exquisite flavours from the ‘The Land of Smiles’ in the plush setting of the Rare Eastern Dining (R.E.D) restaurant at the Radisson Blu MBD Hotel in Noida.

Curated by Chef Ghanshyam Thapa, the menu offers an insight into how much more there is to enjoy gastronomically than just having the regular curries with steamed rice or chicken satay with peanut sauce.

For the chef, spearheading the food festival, which started on March 29 and ends on April 6, was not difficult, but getting the right ingredients to bring out the authentic taste on the plate was a “tad” tough.

The menu, which has been priced at Rs 5,000 plus taxes for two sans alcohol, will leave you impressed. Starting with appetisers such as Ngob Kung, or the grilled prawn parcels, followed by the marinated mince lamb skewers called Neua Kae, which were tastefully wrapped around lemongrass stalks, adding extra flavour to the meat resting on them. The condiments such as peanut sauce and burnt chilli oil blended well with the skewers.

Then came the main course and of course there were curries, but not ones we are familiar with. The restaurant has rested the popular ones, laying out instead an immensely flavourful spread.

The Kaeng Paa Kae, which is spicy lamb in Thai jungle curry, went perfectly with the steaming hot jasmine rice. The fried prawns with Thai basil sauce was cooked to perfection.

The winner, though, was the pork and long green beans with chilli sauce. Called a mouthful — Thua Phak Prik Gang Tua Fak Tao — in Thai, the dish was packed with flavours that leave you salivating for more.

The menu of course does cater to those who do not like to experiment much, so you will get the Thai red and green curries if you insist on having them. Then there is Nasi Goreng, or fried rice, for the ones who like it extra spicy.

On a sweeter note, the dessert section was not far behind the appetisers and the main course. Predictably, in the final race, Khao Meow Mamuang, or the sweet sticky coconut milk rice with mango, turned out to be the winner of the evening, ensuring we went back home with a memorable taste in the mouth.

Dig in to know more. Khob Khun Ka!